Croatia vs Albania Prediction: Both nations have to respond here

Game 2 of 3 in the UEFA Euro 2024 in Group B will see Croatia play against Albania at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg. Both nations were defeated in their opening encounters and will now look forward to taking maximum points in this crucial game. How will this encounter end?

Croatia will be shocked with how their opener against Spain ended and this team now has to decide their fate in this encounter. Entering into this Euro 2024, Croatia have one of the best performances we could expect from any side, as they pulled off a run of six consecutive wins. 

However, in their game against Spain, Croatia conceded three goals in 17 minutes without being able to respond to any at the end of halftime. However, while they did have a promising performance in the second halftime, this team still lost a penalty with Bruno Petkovic failing to convert his chance while he also saw a rebounce converted disallowed. Heading into this encounter, Croatia take on an Albania side that lost their opener and are also working hard to boost their qualification chances with a win here. 

Just like their opponent, Albania are in a difficult spot and will need a win in this encounter to at least have a chance of making it out of the group stage. Coming into this tournament, Albania pulled off consecutive wins over Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein in games that ended 3-1 and 3-0. However, things did not go the way they had wanted against Italy in their opener. 

In the game, Albania scored just one minute into the game, taking advantage of a misplaced throw-in by Federico Dimarco. However, just 10 minutes after Nedim Bajrami's strike, Italy leveled the scores while taking the lead through Nicolo Barella's shot outside the box. 

Pre-match facts show that Albania scored just their second goal at the Euros in their campaign opener but conceded their fifth goal in that period. In this game 2, Albania will enter as underdogs, but while this will be the first-ever meeting with Croatia, a side that was not too impressive in their opener, this team will look to get things right here. 

Croatia Possible Starting Lineup:

Livakovic; Stanisic, Sutalo, Gvardiol, Sosa; Modric, Sucic, Kovacic; Majer, Budimir, Kramaric

Albania Possible Starting Lineup:

Strakosha; Hysaj, Ajeti, Djimsiti, Mitaj; Asllani, Ramadani; Laci, Bajrami, Hoxha; Broja

You can argue that Croatia did not perform well against Spain in the opener of their competition, but we did see some promising performances in the second half. On the other hand, Albania did show character against Italy but was not just too good enough to take something out of that encounter. 

Ahead of this game, both teams are in a dilemma, and they can not just afford to drop points in this one. With the performances we saw from the two teams in the opener, however, this game definitely looks like an open one, but Croatia, with experience, has the edge. With both teams expected to be decent in defense, a maximum of two goals is expected here, also.